This historic rebuild of the Governor Oswald West log cabin was a really interesting challenge. The cabin, originally built in 1913, was destroyed by an arsonist’s fire in 1991. We rebuilt the cabin from scratch using green logs salvaged by A Place in the Sun Log Homes in Timber, Oregon. The cabin was completed in 1995 but we went back regularly for a few years to make adjustments as the green logs dried, shrank, and settled.
The rebuild allowed us to make some improvements while we were at it. The family needed a basement for storage, a wine cellar, and a place for all the modern mechanical/electrical systems to be hidden away. This helped make the cabin more comfortable while keeping the homey, historical feel of the main living quarters.
The site itself was a challenge, because we had to stabilize the ground the cabin had originally been built on, prevent spring water from seeping into the basement, and reinforce the logs with vertical steel rods to meet earthquake safety codes.
Between the architect and the family, we had a lot of information to use in the rebuild and everyone worked together to restore a lot of original details. One of the best things about the build was hearing a family member say that the new cabin felt just like the old one.
The Oswald Cabin is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It was such an honor to be able to participate in this project, preserving an important historic building on our beautiful Oregon coastline.
For more information about this unique rebuild, click here to read an article about the rebuild in Oregon Home magazine, fall 1999. [2.4 MB pdf]